The Bournemouth man making sculptures out of cutlery

  • Meridian

One person's rubbish is often another person's treasure, and that's certainly the case for one man in Bournemouth.

Gary Smith is turning old cutlery into art, and he can't make his sculptures fast enough for a growing number of customers.

Gary Smith is turning old cutlery into art

Gary's a familiar figure in the charity shops in Southbourne in Bournemouth, as he rumages for his raw materials. He needs old cutlery, something pretty and cheap - that he can turn into works of art.

Gary Smith uses cutlery to make artwork

Gary's currently furloughed from his job as a specialist welder in the aviation industry - so this is just a hobby, which started to get serious a couple of years ago. 

  • Gary Smith

Gary has made dozens of sculptures - birds are currently popular, but he's especially pleased with a yacht he was commissioned to make out of a deceased grandmothers cutlery set.

This yacht is made out of cutlery

For now this it's still a hobby - but the order book is starting to bulge, so who knows where this might lead, so long as there's a steady supply of cutlery.